Fireplaces, Heating Stoves, Flues and Chimneys - Second flue next to "live" fireplace flue...
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CMil
02-11-08, 07:23 PM
I am having trouble getting an answer from my landlord to a question about the brick fireplace in his house (the one I'm renting from him).I don't think he really knows the answer, so I'll pose the question to the folks I believe WILL know - YOU!
The fireplace in this house is built in the middle of the living space, and opens into the living room. The structure houses a coat closet at one end and the kitchen pantry at the other end, on the opposite side of the structure from the living room. Between the fireplace chimney/flue and the pantry is a second "flue" with no damper, with an opening roughly 12"h by 18"w in the wall about chest high. There is also a length of 10/4 electrical cable roughed in at the opening. It does not look like anything has ever been connected to the cable. There may also be an outside source of air to the firebox of the fireplace.
Could this arrangement be for some sort of chimney heat recovery device? This house was constructed in the '70's sometime, and was fairly high-end in its day. It's in southwest Missouri, where we get some pretty real winter weather. It's also a partial-berm house; the north side of the house is almost completely in contact with the soil, and the south side is almost all glass. Any ideas? Thanks in advance - Chris
The fireplace in this house is built in the middle of the living space, and opens into the living room. The structure houses a coat closet at one end and the kitchen pantry at the other end, on the opposite side of the structure from the living room. Between the fireplace chimney/flue and the pantry is a second "flue" with no damper, with an opening roughly 12"h by 18"w in the wall about chest high. There is also a length of 10/4 electrical cable roughed in at the opening. It does not look like anything has ever been connected to the cable. There may also be an outside source of air to the firebox of the fireplace.
Could this arrangement be for some sort of chimney heat recovery device? This house was constructed in the '70's sometime, and was fairly high-end in its day. It's in southwest Missouri, where we get some pretty real winter weather. It's also a partial-berm house; the north side of the house is almost completely in contact with the soil, and the south side is almost all glass. Any ideas? Thanks in advance - Chris
hearthman
02-12-08, 11:23 AM
Cannot speculate. Get a Level II inspection
HTH,
Hearthman
HTH,
Hearthman
md2lgyk
02-13-08, 09:08 AM
Only a qualified inspector could tell you. I had a similar situation in my last house - the chimney was very wide and had four flue pipes coming out the top of it but I had only one fireplace. Turned out one flue was for the fireplace, one was for the oil furnace, and the other two were fakes. They were 2-ft pieces of flue tile mortared into the chimney crown just for looks.